You should know there's a font that makes reading easier, especially for people with low vision. It's called Atkinson Hyperlegible Next. It's free for personal and commercial use.
You should know there's a font that makes reading easier, especially for people with low vision. It's called Atkinson Hyperlegible Next. It's free for personal and commercial use.
Read easier with Atkinson Hyperlegible Font, crafted for low-vision readers. Download for free and enjoy clear letters and numbers on your computer!
I see a lot of people discussing this font and mentioning OpenDyslexia.
I couldn't find research on Atkinson Hyperlegible. It says it was recently this year, I also couldn't find any research on effectuveness when I looked through the website. If I missed it I aplogize and would love to learn more if someone wants to take the time to link/copy the applicable info. My hope is since it's a non-profit group focusing on helping those with vision problems it has been well developed tested for effectiveness. Certainly if someone wants to try for themselves please do. Before going all out though say converting large volumes of things or implementing for a classroom I think asking questions would be prudent.
Unfortunately OpenDyslexia does not actually help those with this learn disability! The authors of the below article do a good job of discussing why and the harm misconception/misuse of products like these can create.
Wery JJ, Diliberto JA. The effect of a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy. Ann Dyslexia. 2017 Jul;67(2):114-127. doi: 10.1007/s11881-016-0127-1. Epub 2016 Mar 18. PMID: 26993270; PMCID: PMC5629233. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5629233/
Here is some more info and strategies for those instered in regards to dyslexia. https://childmind.org/article/understanding-dyslexia/
This is nowhere near as good as the Open Dyslexic font. It looks weird, and I'm not dyslexic, but damn it makes me able to read so much faster!
I find it ironic that their website has extremely low contrasting colors making it very hard to read.
(Look at the top left for the worst example)
I actually changed my Anki to OpenDyslexic a couple of months ago! I changed it again when Atkinson Hyperlegible Next came out, but I agree that OpenDyslexic makes reading a breeze.
My only grievance with OpenDyslexic is that I don't think I could send reports with this font without pushback. On the other hand, I have sent multiple reports using Atkinson Hyperlegible and nobody has ever said a thing.
I wonder how it works. Maybe it has to do with the intentional varying of the sizes of holes in letters, and the lopsided lines so one can't be confused as another.
This looks like the font used on shroom tshirts
I wish there was an open font that tries to do the same thing, but with an aesthetic that wasn't reminiscent of comic sans.
You're looking at it, the one linked In the op lmao
But comic sans is funny
It's also aesthetically pleasant which is a big plus.
Not for readability it isn't
I think this actually has a negative effect for me. It's like every character is now screaming for my attention, and my brain can't read whole words and phrases. I have to process the letters first. Though it's possible this could be more to do with the website's rendering on mobile and default font size.
That's interesting. I'd love to know if you have the same experience on a desktop and with different font sizes.
It's fine for me on mobile, and I'm glad that the "I" has horizontal lines. So many scammers adopt fake usernames by using an "I" (capital "i") instead of an "l" (lowercase "L") and vice versa.
It doesn't work for me either. Just reading the text on the page linked here was uncomfortable. It's not like you describe though - for me it's like there's too much white space and there's this mass of words almost floating around the page and it's hard to keep track of where I'm up to. I am a bad/slow reader and all reading is like that for me - that font just seems to make it worse.
I think this font is meant for people with bad eyesight. The website doesn’t make any claims about trouble reading for other reasons.
I’ve always read very fast with no problems but now I’m old and can’t see small print as easily. This font actually was much more comfortable for me to read without my glasses, which I guess is nice for me but no use at all for you.
How do you feel about comic sans and the open dyslexia font some other comments on this page are talking about with positive and negative comments? Do those make any difference at all to you?
Its beyond free for use, its OFL.
Only Fans Literature?
Ordinarily Frisky Lingo
Open font license
I really like the Roboto Mono Nerd Font
The original Atkinson Hyperlegible (without Next) is available by default on some Kobo e-readers. I use it for a few months now and I find that indeed it helps reading at night (or without my glasses because it's nice to remove them from time to time).
I use this font for any document I type up, if it's to be consumed by anyone else but myself.
Coolness! I like the bionic font, but it’s more “just for me” than anything. This looks like a great default.
I dont get how thst don't works. Surly it can't know the word in advance and auto bold the first three letters?
I tried to get it working on Kobo and it dosnt seem to. Perhaps it was me though.
Could be very advanced use of ligatures
The bionic font? Good point, I don't know how it “knows.”
I have been using this font as the default font on my personal laptop and I am more than happy with the way it looks and reads.
A couple of years ago I tried using the original Atkinson Hyperlegible (the one published a couple of years ago, before "Next") on GNOME and my settings didn't quite work. I had scaling at around 100% and increased the font size a little bit because I was having a hard time reading the font (the irony!). You inspired me to try again, but now with Atkinson Hyperlegible Next!
can't wait for this to be in distros by default.
I have been using this font on my eBook Reader for years. It's great. Highly recommended - it might look a little bit goofy at the first glance, but it really is more readable.
Just installed it on my kobo and it’s fantastic.
It feels like Arial but with serifs.
I just added this to my eReader. I’ve been reading g a lot lately and while I haven’t had any difficulty, I’m eager to see if it enhances comprehension.
Good post OP.
I'm glad you found it useful.
If you're experimenting with fonts to see how they change comprehension, you could try Open Dyslexic too! It looks quite ugly, but it makes reading easier to me and another commenter on this thread. I suppose it's a matter of testing what works best for you.
Thank you for that suggest. I had taken a peek at it a while ago and it’s too “wobbly” for me.
As someone that has pretty decent vision, I enjoyed reading this font very much. Imma have to download it just because it's pleasant to read.
Can I change fonts on my iphone, can I change it to this? I have a disability that impacts my vision and currently I’ve been relying on making text massive but this could be a better solution it sounds like.
No. Very irritatingly, iOS won’t let you install fonts normally.
In order for you to install a font, someone else needs to make an app for that font, and once you download and run the app that installs the font, that font becomes available anywhere.
This seems profoundly stupid to me and I do not get it.
There actually is an app for the older font, which you can find if you search the App Store for “hyperlegible”, where some guy is charging $2 to package up this free font for you.
Thanks, Apple. As usual you’ve done a great job ensuring that nobody gives away anything for free on iPhones
I don’t think so. At least I couldn’t find anything on my settings app.
This seems to indicate it's best for those with 'low vision' which almost implies there's a more 'hyperlegible' font that's better for those with standard/regular vision. Is this the case or should it be argued that this font is most legible for all and thusly also best for those with low vision? Just curious--would like to know what best runner-ups would be suggested too
This is largely a layperson's opinion, but I don't think there would be much of a difference. The thing is that perfect vision rarely happens, not just because of bad eyes, but because sunlight might be hitting your screen or you're reading at a weird angle or contrast is bad etc..
And even if the pixels were beamed straight to your retina, your brain is still a pattern matching machine. If it's easier to discern individual letters, it becomes quicker to select each word correctly.Having said that, if there were a font that's objectively the most readable, we probably wouldn't have a gazillion different fonts. Some folks here have said that they find this font distracting, for example. So, yeah, you kind of have to decide on your own, what works best for you.
I'm also curious how they went about creating this font. Any resources on how they go about proving/creating it's 'hyperlegibility'?
The website lists some features that enhance legibility. Some are common sense (ex. 1, l and I all look different), some are less obvious:
-
Unambiguous Letterforms
-
Clear Uprights
-
Distinct Pairs
-
Open Counters
-
Spurs and Tails
-
Special Circles (although this one could be just branding)
-
This is probably a stupid question. If it is free for personal and all commercial use... which case isn't covered by that? Could just say it is free to use.
OP just tries to be as clear and transparent as possible, because there are times when someone says something is "free to use" but then in the "fine print" they hide limitations.
LaTeX packages are available, too:
I used it for a bit on my e-reader but decided to switch away from it. It's quite good either way.
Thanks for sharing!
Looks normal to me